All roads lead to Chauncey

While Flip didn't make any smart adjustment, the adjustment he could have made was taken off the table by Chauncy.

Chauncy's journey began when he got hurt and the team went on a tough west coast series of games. Several good things happened on that trip, but the keys were.

1. Flip Murray emerged as a decent guard that could penetrate. 2. We found that running the offense through Webber worked like magic.

Then two things happened when we returned home. 1. Chauncy, in a big article complained that he didn't know his role anymore when the offense ran through Webber. His complaints were powerful and heard, so Flip ditched the offense that worked so well, and we went back to Chauncy as the facilitator. 2. Hunter was returning to form, and slowly but surely, he pushed Murrays minutes further down.

IMO, these two thing simply killed us. When we hit a team that could shut our guards down(great job by Mike Brown), the logical answer should have been to move the offense through another focal point... Webber. This would have allowed the guards to get more movement without having primary responsibility for controlling game flow.

With that accomplished, we should have been able to minimize most of the turnovers. Unfortunately, it's hard to make an adjustment to a scheme that you abandoned months ago.

My point is that Chauncy is at the bottom of this, and Flip caved, knowing how successful we were using Webber.

Even so, you have to credit the Cavs coach. We killed them in the regular season, but he came up with a plan to hit us at our weakest position, the ball distributor. It worked like a charm, the engine of our offense never really got started.

Now maybe Joe will get this team the help they need, and it's not much. We really only need two things. 1. A real Big Man, we can't play with big team. and, 2. A bonafide scorer off the bench(a penetrating guard or sf) Other than that, just draft well, and make smart trades with all the good pieces we already have.

Oracle, I have thought about that stretch several times as well. We did see a glimpse of what this team could be with a different style - a style more suited for our coach and starting center (at that time). A style that is better suited for the playoffs.

With Billups running the point and Webber standing around with nothing to do...we saw how a defense that didn't have to react to either dribble penetration or an inside presence can easily defend the perimeter. Leading to a team shooting percentage in the mid 30's.

If Flip Saunders had been able to develop a Flip Murray/Webber counterpunch for the playoffs, he might have been able to defeat that gimmicky Cavs defense. That's on him.

So, if we keep Chauncey, it better be part of a strategy that has us getting younger, stronger inside players that command instant double teams, because Chauncey can no longer be relied upon to force a defense to react all by himself.

Cleveland lost to us last year with Flip Murray on their team. This year we take him off their hands and they beat us.

Do you guys think for a minute that Cleveland would have beaten us if they had been using Murray instead of Gibson??

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That's why the thread isn't called, "all roads lead to Flip." As bad as Flip Murray is, his play showed that this Piston team could play a different style without blowing the whole thing up. These Pistons shoot poorly in the playoffs because they are getting very few open looks - like the ones Gibson were getting and hitting. Chauncey was not breaking down the defense and we had virtually no inside presence...therefore Cleveland's D stays at home and most of our shots are heavily contested...and missed.

We do need someone decent to back up CB. Johnson at Atlanta may be available. He would give about 20-25 minutes per game with about 7-9 points and 4-5 assists. It doesn't necessarily have to be him, but someone of the type. A solid backup who can score a bit and make sound decisions. Chauncey needs to be re-signed for a reasonable amount. If he's asking for lots, then sign-and-trade him.

If Chauncey doesn't get a backup there is no use in signing him. He plays like he is one of the worst PG's in the league when he is tired.

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Tired or rushed. He is not good at running a transition offense, he always needs stuff to settle down. Downfall with this approach is that it allows other like minded defensive teams time to set their scheme i.e. Cavs.

We don't have a bonafide backup 3 because Tay gets all the minutes. Delfino is a natural 2 and it's debatable how good he actually is.

We didn't play Darko because Ben got all the minutes.

We don't have a bonafide backup PG because (this is totally my opinion) Joe didn't want to pressure Chauncey until his new contract was signed. There was absolutely no rhyme or reason to trade Arroyo when he cost us a first round pick. He might not have been a starting guard, but I have a hard time believing he wasn't one of if not the best backup PG in the NBA.

I'm starting to shift a bit on my support for Chauncey. You have to get it done in the playoffs...one of the reasons Jerry Stackhouse fell out of favor. Our pal Merc posted this harsh critique of Mr. Big Shot on the RealGM forum..

Chauncey is overrated (esp on D)... he's already to slow... if you can get a couple young studs you should go 4 it before we get into cap hell. A 2nd round pick just owned him for a series.

I've pondered the dealing of Arroyo many times...most recently, earlier today. When the trade went down, I wasn't too concerned...viewing Lindsey as experienced and serviceable for a couple years. And when Murray got signed, I figured we had enough to cover CB's back while staying within BillD's checkbook limitations.

A few months ago, I finally came to the conclusion that sending Arroyo off was a mistake.